msgid ""
"There are a number of reasons why I'm not a communist. The first of them is "
"that I'm not against the idea of private business, as long as it does not "
"oppose people's human rights and the interests of society. Business is "
"legitimate as long as it treats the rest of society decently."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"Computing is a new area of human life. So we have to think about the human "
"rights associated with this. What are the human rights software users are "
"entitled to? Four freedoms define Free Software. A programme is Free "
"Software for a user if:"
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"With these 4 Freedoms, you can live an upright life with your community. If "
"you use nonfree, proprietary software, the developer has the power to decide "
"what you can do. He can use that power over you. Like Microsoft. That game "
"is evil. Nobody should play it. So it's not a question of beating Microsoft "
"at its game. I set out to get away from that game."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"Once GNU-Linux was ready in 1992, it began to catch on. It was reliable, "
"powerful, cheap and flexible. Thousands and millions of people began to use "
"GNU-Linux. But the ideals of freedom began to be forgotten though. In 1998, "
"people stopped talking about Free Software. Instead they said “open "
"source”. That was a way of not saying “free” and not "
"mentioning the ideas behind it. I don't disagree with that, but that's not "
"what I am interested in. What I'm really interested in most of all is to "
"teach people to value their freedoms and to fight for them. In software, as "
"in the US, our freedom is threatened. So the basic things we need to do are: "
"remember our freedom frequently, value it and insist on it. When someone "
"says they protect me from terrorism by taking away my freedom—say No! "
"Similarly, with software that threatens our freedom, that might give us some "
"temporary comparative advantage—we should say No!"
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"West Bengal should not follow the world trend. It should stand up for "
"freedom. That's different. No! I'm not going to let the world lead me where "
"it wants to go. I'm going where freedom is. If you're going "
"elsewhere—I'm not going there. It requires firmness, it requires a "
"decision that says freedom matters and hence it must be promoted. Even if "
"that's inconvenient. Freedom needs some sacrifices, some inconvenience, some "
"price. But it's a small price to pay."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"By globalisation, people usually mean globalisation of the power of "
"business. Business should not have political power. Otherwise democracy "
"becomes sick. And with globalisation of business power, this political power "
"is enhanced. Free trade treaties are designed to attack democracy. For "
"instance, it explicitly allows any business to sue government if a law makes "
"its profit less than it has been. Companies have to be paid for the "
"permission to do anything of social or environmental importance. Not all "
"free trade treaties do this explicitly. They do it implicitly. Companies can "
"threaten to move away elsewhere. And they do use this threat."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"This actually happened some years ago, with the EU software patents. The "
"govt of Denmark was threatened that if they did not support this the company "
"would move the business elsewhere. This tiny threat was sufficient to "
"blackmail the govt of Denmark. If you allow a foreign mega-corporation to "
"buy a domestic corporation, you are allowing it to buy a weapon pointed "
"against your country. The environment, public health, general standards of "
"living—are all important, and free trade treaties should be "
"abolished. They are harmful to freedom, health and the lives of people."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"I do not accept the term “intellectual property”. The very term "
"is biased and confusing. It talks about useful techniques and works. It "
"presumes they are “property”. It prejudges such "
"questions. There's also a more subtle problem. It lumps together all the "
"diverse things and makes it look like you can talk about all of them "
"together. Copyright, patents, trade laws—are all very different. It "
"takes the geatest efforts of the best scholars to overcome the confusion "
"caused by the term “intellectual property” and to discuss the "
"details of these individual items."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"The GATT "
"Treaty and the TRIPS—actually it should be called Trade-related "
"Impediments to Education and Science. Free trade and enhancement of world "
"trade harms democracy. When you globalise something evil, it becomes a "
"greater evil. And when you globalise something good, it becomes a greater "
"good. Human knowledge and cooperation are such “goods”. The Free "
"Software Movement is a part of that. It is the globalisation of one area of "
"human knowledge, namely software. Through global cooperation like this, you "
"get freedom and independence for every region and every country."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"Proprietary software is a colonial system. It's electronic colonialism. And "
"not by a country, but by a corporation. Electronic colonial powers keep "
"people divided and helpless. Look at the end-user licensing agreement. You "
"don't have the source code, you are helpless. You can't share, and so you "
"are kept divided. National colonial powers recruit local elites and pay them "
"and keep them above the rest of the people, working for the colonial "
"masters. Today we see electronic colonial powers recruit native zamindars to "
"keep the system intact. Microsoft sets up a research facility and in "
"exchange it keeps its grip firmly on everyone else. Govts and schools are in "
"their grip. They know how to do this. They know how to buy govt support. But "
"what's the govt buying? Dependency, not development. Only Free Software "
"constitutes development. It enables any activity to be fully under the "
"control of the people doing it. Free Software is appropriate "
"technology. Proprietary software is not appropriate for any use."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"The West Bengal govt has an opportunity to adopt a policy of firm leadership "
"in this regard. This will give a boost to human resource development. Free "
"Software respects people's freedom. Govt has an influence on the future of "
"society. Choosing which software to teach students: if you teach them "
"Windows, they will be Windows users. For something else, they need to learn, "
"and make the effort to learn something else. Microsoft knows this. So it "
"donates Windows to schools. Addiction (through using unauthorised software "
"use) only helps them. They didn't want to leave anything to choice, so they "
"give Windows free to schools. Like injecting a dose. The first dose is "
"gratis. Afterwards it's not gratis, either for them or their employers. This "
"is a way to impose their power on the rest of society and its "
"future. Schools have a mission to society. This mission requires teaching "
"students to live in freedom, teaching skills to make it easy to live in "
"freedom. This means using Free Software."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"Free Software is good for computer science education, to maximise the "
"potential of natural programmers. It gives students the opportunity to "
"really learn. It's good for the natural programmers. If you have proprietary "
"software, the teacher says “I don't know”, “You are not "
"allowed to know, it's a secret.” So the alternative is to give him the "
"source codes and let him read it all. They will then learn to be really good "
"programmers."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"But the most crucial reason is for the sake of moral education. Teaching "
"them to be good corporations and benevolent, helpful citizens. This has to "
"be taught. School has to teach by example. If you bring software to class, "
"you must share this with other kids. Or don't bring it. Schools must follow "
"their own rule, by bringing Free Software to class. Schools should use 100% "
"Free Software. No proprietary software should be used in schools. Public "
"agencies, after a migration period, should use Free Software. All software "
"development must run on Free Software platforms. And if it's released to the "
"public, it must be Free Software. (Free: as in free speech, not free beer.)"
msgstr ""
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msgid ""
"One easy and useful way to put Free Software in schools—is to "
"participate in the “1 Laptop per Child” programme. India "
"recently pulled out of this programme, I'm told. I'm told the Indian govt is "
"making lots of laws to make multinational corporations happy. Maybe this was "
"to make Microsoft happy. Even if India is not, West Bengal can participate "
"in the 1 Laptop per child programme. I can put them in touch with the people "
"developing that machine."
msgstr ""
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"The Govt of India is considering a vicious new copyright law, imitating US "
"law, in favour of large businesses, and against its citizens. The only "
"emergency I can see that requires this being rushed through is catastrophic "
"shortfall in the dream profits of some businesses! Foreigners should not "
"have political power. In my case, I don't."
msgstr ""
#. TRANSLATORS: Use space (SPC) as msgstr if you don't have notes.
#. type: Content of:

msgid ""
"Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to <gnu@gnu.org>. There are also other ways to contact the FSF. Broken links and "
"other corrections or suggestions can be sent to <webmasters@gnu.org>."
msgstr ""
#. TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph,
#. replace it with the translation of these two:
#
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#. translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection.
#. Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard
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